Slander or opinion! in need of advice!?

Question

A month ago I posted a

question about a situation I

put myself in with my ex

employeer. Basically to cap what happened I worked at a daycare where a lot of illegal stuff was taking place. Example: off the books pay, violation of health dept. and she treated her staff like c**p. I was hired under false pretenses. I wrote all of this on merchant circle, a web site designed specifically for rating and posting your personal opinions of a business. I ananomously posted why I didnt think it was safe for parents to consider not taking their children there. Based on all truth and things i personally experienced there. Now im not the only one who has seen these things. All the past and current employees hate her and witness this stuff all the time. She cut breaks and hours and changed our pay to twice a month all in one day.

I received a letter from her lawyer stating that if i continue to slander her business by but not limitated to internet postings, verbal communication and so one that she would pursue a lawsuit against me. The letter claims she lost business because of my comments which is bs because before i left she wrote a staff news letter stating from her own mouth that the summer would be slow esp. during the months of july and aug. (the same month a aparently cost her loss of business.) i held on to the news letter and am willing to use that to defend myself that i did not cause her loss of business. i know of 3 parents who have left and 2 of them were layed off and one whom im friends with put her child with an ex employee of my boss. she was debating taking her kids out b4 i even left.

my problem is, when it comes to having people as witnesses in court its hard to accomplish because i dont know many people personally and the chances of them prob wanting to envolve themselves with all of this is likely not going to happen. i do have 2 people who said they would testify against her if this does go to court whom are both ex emplyees of hers.

what are the chances that this will go to court and win?

does she have a better defence than me or will it be hard for her to prove im even the one who posted it since it was done ananomously.

please respond nicely. i dont need to be insulted. there always seems to be someone who has to be negative. keep it to yourself.

thanks

Answer 1

My first question here would be WHY THE h**l DIDN'T YOU or THE OTHER EMPLOYEES TURN THIS WOMAN IN TO THE AUTHORITIES if she was doing all this illegal stuff....   If she is a bad care taker or running her business with illegal practices, SOMEONE should have reported her to the State who MUST regulate her business if she is caring for more then 5 children......   The state has very strict regulations on how day care centers MUST BE RUN and therefore, it was your obligation to report any mis-doings by this woman...OR her employees...   If these allocations are true, it is neither slander NOR liable.... if they can be PROVEN true, this woman SHOULD be in a HEAP of trouble with the State Department of Childrens Services or Social Services or whatever yuur particular state calls the department.   If these allocations are true, you SHOULD report it and let the State take care of this woman... she CANNOT win a case of slander against yiou if your allocations are TRUE...but for the sake of any children in her care,  I'd report her misdoings to the proper state authority....

Answer 2

You don't have to prove that anything is true.........she has to prove everything was a lie.  This is only one of the reasons slander/libel are extremely difficult charges to prove, so I wouldn't worry.  Many people will often have a lawyer write a letter hoping that fear will cause the behavior to stop.

If you posted anonymously, they either subpoenaed the records of the website (which you should have been notified of), or are simply making a guess that it was you.  I'm "guessing" they are guessing.  For this reason, personally I would not admit that I posted anything and would either not respond at all or respond with a sentence that basically says sue me.

Answer 3

Did you damage the employer with knowingly false statements?

By the way, if you wrote something as such, it's libel, not slander.

Answer 4

You are in a grey area here.  Posting it anonymously on the internet does leave you possibly vulnerable to a charge of slander, IF you cannot document the accusations.  

If your statements are factually true, you cannot be charged with libel as the definition of libel is making a false or miseleading statement.